Such a Heavenly View
by apples-a-day
Summary: AU after 1st Curse. The Curse was just broken a few months ago, and Storybrooke is in shambles, divided by people who want to get home, those who want to hurt Regina, and the few that are willing to protect her. In the midst of it all, someone has started serenading Regina, leaving messages in public spaces. Who is it? Are they just setting her up for a prank to break her heart? SQ
1. Mysterious Serenader

**Oh boy, finally gathering the courage to write and post a SQ fanfic. It's daunting and exciting!**

**I don't even know how I ended up knowing I was shipping this ship, I just know I started looking it up and dived off the deep end and kinda haven't resurfaced.**

**Basically this story came because I've been listening to A Sky Full of Stars on repeat for days on end and feel like the song fits them.**

**I hope everyone likes this!**

**I don't own anything, if I did, this ship would be beyond canon.**

* * *

Regina kept staring at the navy blue velvet box in her hands, willing her brain to start working again. On her other hand was a stock paper card that had been one of the two items inside the box, lying on top of the other item, placed with great care. Surely this was some sort of prank or joke, for there was no way someone would send her such a gorgeous gift, a necklace with a single silver 8-sided star on it. She supposed the star symbol was related to the printed words on the card, and she glanced at the small paper rectangle once more.

_**'Cause you're a sky full of stars**_

It was an enigmatic choice of words, that was certain, but the bigger question was how the box had gotten inside of her locked office when she was one of the few people that had a key to it, the other being…

"Kathryn?" Regina made her way out of her office and into the next room, where her blonde secretary and friend looked up expectantly at her after being called. Regina was stuck for a moment, unsure how to phrase herself.

Kathryn, for her part, noticed the items in Regina's hands, and raising a small eyebrow in confusion, prompted the older woman, "Regina? Is there something wrong?"

"Did you-" No, she didn't want to sound accusatory. With the broken curse fresh in everyone's heads, one wrong move could send the mindless mob to picket her house once more. She decided to try again. "Do you know of anyone else that might have keys into my office?"

The secretary was even more baffled now. Regina should know better than her as to who would have duplicate keys, being the mayor and all. Not to mention she had only been in this position for the past couple of months, ever since the curse broke and no one else had risen to the occasion to work under Regina, since most of the town was either terrified or pissed off at her. "Not that I know of? Perhaps the janitorial staff?"

Regina had to stifle a scoff. There was no way that Leroy would have done this. He being one of the lead organizers of the mob that liked to decorate her house with rotten fruits and eggs regularly. The unruly dwarf had been one of the worst off during the curse, constantly drunk and jailed. But at the time Regina had only seen red to Snow White's closest supporters, and Grumpy had been at the top of the list, right behind her dim-witted husband Charming, who she supposed ended up getting a kind of blessing being stuck in a coma for nearly three decades. But back to the matter at hand, literally. Kathryn had been talking to her while her thoughts had drifted.

"I'm sorry dear, I missed the last part."

"I said that I don't think they have the key to your inner office." After a beat, she added, a tinge of worry in her voice, "Why? Was something taken?"

Regina shook her head. "No, quite the opposite it seems. Someone dropped this off." She showed her friend the open box and the card.

"Oooh, looks like someone has a secret admirer." Kathryn looked up from the items to smirk playfully at her friend.

Now Regina couldn't hold the scoff in, and replied, "Hardly, this is most likely a prank. You know as well as I do that no one in this town likes me, and especially not in that way."

Kathryn kept her mouth shut, making a noncommittal sound. She knew and believed her friend deserved more, but the one and only time they had ventured to discuss that had led to disastrous consequences, which included a few broken vases and a cracked mirror. It was all courtesy of Regina's emotions powering up her magic to explode the objects nearest her, which were the two vases on her mantel, and the mirror hanging above it. Although neither of them got hurt badly, she and Regina still have the fading scars on their arms from the vase shards flying. Changing the course of conversation to a more safer road, she now asked, "Do you want me to notify the Sheriff's station of a break-in then?"

"No no, that's fine. I'd probably just incite the prankster more if I make them the center of attention."

The blonde nodded, not believing the excuse for one second, but thought better than to counter it and then smiled, "So, are you gonna put it on?"

Here, Regina faltered. She had to admit the necklace was pretty, but putting it on might send the prankster the wrong signal. However, she was never one to back down from a challenge, so with a grin that had the smallest of Evil Queen qualities to it, she nodded. "Yes. Want to help me?"

* * *

By the time afternoon rolled around, Regina was ready to tear her hair out. Although she enjoyed her job as mayor, she was certain the citizens of Storybrooke were making sure her workload had doubled, probably to dissuade her from potentially crafting any evil plans now that this curse had fizzed and died. Although it might look like it, Regina wasn't being paranoid. She knew for a fact that there were people actively out to make her life miserable, and if they could get a lucky hit, they would end her.

The small town had been divided into four groups once the curse broke. Those scared of Regina, keeping their heads down, mouths shut and hoping they could be spared from anymore drama if they just blended into the background. Such were the timid wallflowers like Ashley and her family, as well as Michael Tillman with his children, among others.

The more dangerous and popular group was furious with Regina, and giving her hell was the least that they could do in retribution. Leroy and Whale were spearheading that movement, sometimes aided by Granny, propping up signs and refusing her service around town. They were actually more subdued now, the culmination having been when they had made a giant protest a month ago, breaking into her home and destroying most of it, vandalizing the rest. She thankfully hadn't been home, and neither had Henry, otherwise she was sure she would've been skewered alive, and her son hurt in the crossfire. Her house was still not fully restored, some parts damaged beyond repair, and no one in town would offer her the professional help she needed to fully renovate it. The rage-fueled group had been later wrangled by the Sheriff and given a thorough talking to, explaining that their actions were very much illegal, and those caught committing further crimes would be penalized to the full extent of the law, no matter who they thought Regina was. Although they still spat vitriol at her every chance they got, they thankfully respected Emma Swan enough to keep their activities only vaguely illegal.

The third group, led by the insipid Charming couple, was solely focused on getting back home to the Enchanted Forest. They attempted to recruit those from the latter group to join them, knowing their efforts would be better spent working together to find a way home, rather than wasting it on Regina. It was a futile and naive effort but they didn't believe Regina when she said the land was gone, as they still perused what they could to scramble for some sort of method home. Regina let them keep at it and didn't insist. It was probably for the better since, as soon as they were to realize they were stuck for good, they would probably join the enraged likes of Leroy and Granny to make her life in this new version of Storybrooke into a true hell.

The final, and infinitely smaller group was the one supporting and defending Regina, making sure that she wasn't killed every time she was out in public. Kathryn had mercifully forgiven her, and despite having been cursed, she had enjoyed being friends with Regina, now working with her to keep her company and make sure no one came in to the Mayor's office with cruel intentions. Her husband, Jim, had been with those wallflowers at first, but after talking with his wife, now joined her, helping Kathryn and Regina to renovate the damaged house on weekends. The group didn't have many more members, the others being Archie, who saw the good in everyone, even Regina, but she was sure that she could be a three-eyed cannibalistic troll eating the denizens of Storybrooke on a regular basis and he'd probably still try to convince her that they would eventually end up seeing the good in her. Ruby had been a surprise, but later Regina found out that the young wolf preferred life here in Storybrooke much more than the Enchanted Forest, and actually thanked her. Sweet Henry was her #1 fan, after they had a serious and honest conversation once the curse broke, and he saw that she wasn't the monster he had thought she was, no thanks to the book's two-dimensional portrayal of her life. She was still trying to prove herself to him, show him that she had changed and wasn't evil.

The final member of the group was someone Regina had never expected, having been the person the curse royally screwed over the most. Emma Swan did everything possible to make sure Regina was safe, keeping her word during the town meeting and arresting anyone who was breaking the law to make her life miserable. Regina had been sure that what the Sheriff had said were empty promises meant to keep everyone in their place, but she kept good on her word, surprising Regina. She had even offered and insisted Regina stay over with them while the house was renovated, also for protection, and now shared an apartment with Emma and Henry. Thankfully Emma no longer lived with Mary Margaret, so Regina didn't have that much trouble fitting in to the new home. She also got to see Henry on a regular basis, without having to set up some kind of visiting schedule with Emma, though she was sure that would eventually surface. If Regina had to be entirely honest, she was glad for the arrangement, and knew that no one would dare to attack her with the Sheriff around, not that she'd admit it out loud...ever. However, she was sure that Emma's involvement was solely because of Henry's insistence, probably having given her a rousing speech on her role as the Savior and Sheriff to a small town.

Speaking of whom, Henry had just burst into her office, Emma trailing behind quietly, giving a nod to Regina as Henry launched into telling his adopted mother his many adventures in school. The two had decided, with Henry's best interests in mind, that Henry should be accompanied around town to avoid anyone trying to hurt him to get to Regina, and although she knew that Granny and some of the tamer haters would never hurt Henry, some of the angrier parts of group Vitriol, as Emma had taken to affectionately name, mainly ex-DA Spencer and his old cronies, weren't below chucking a watermelon at Regina's passing car, nearly breaking the glass where Henry was riding in the front. Since that moment, Emma, Regina, or Mary Margaret while in school, kept an eye on him, the latter only doing it as a favor to Emma.

The town was in chaos, and no one knew what to do.

"It was so cool mom! The rocket flew like 10 feet!" Henry was excitedly describing today's science experiment, soda powered rockets. While Regina listened, she couldn't help but glance over at the other woman in the room, noticing that she looked positively exhausted. Being a one woman police force in a town holding fairytale characters with a grudge on an Evil Queen was probably never in Emma Swan's life plans. She currently looked like she was taking a powernap in one of the chairs at the far corner, and Regina couldn't blame her for wanting some peace and quiet. She knew Emma didn't come home until early in the morning, having been awoken with the door slamming shut, relaxing once she realized it was just the Sheriff.

"So what's up with the necklace mom? Is it new? I didn't see it when we left home this morning." Henry, with unaltered curiosity, smiled up at her as he asked, looking as if he had downed the contents of the pop bottles used for the rockets all by himself.

"Someone gave it to me this morning."

"Who was it? Was it a present forgiving you?"

"No Henry, someone... left it here for me to find it. They didn't leave a name." Regina wasn't too sure how much of this she wanted to tell Henry, but the questions just kept coming, and sneaking a glance at the Sheriff, Regina could hazard a guess that the woman was listening.

"Didn't Kathryn see who it was?"

"No, she wasn't here when this was dropped off."

"So how did it get in here?"

"We think…maybe someone broke in here."

"WHAT?!" Henry practically screamed, and at this Emma woke up, jumping out of her seat as though she sat on hot coals. Apparently the Sheriff wasn't listening as intently as Regina had originally thought.

"What happened?" Emma reached behind her for the gun Regina knew she kept hidden, glancing around for signs of danger, but at seeing the two other occupants in the room sitting calmly, she dropped her hands, the gun still hidden and holstered.

"Someone broke into mom's office to drop off a necklace." Henry replied, looking at her with a smile. Emma looked so silly, hands before on her back ready to draw something out, now limply at her sides, face stuck between surprise and anger at having been rudely awoken from a nap.

"Oh," Emma said, not fully comprehending what happened. Regina supposed that the lack of reaction or surprise to the news was owed to her sleepy state. After a few beats it sunk in. "Wha- wait did they take anything? Did they leave some kind of threatening message-?"

"No, Miss. Swan, merely what I believe to be a prankster with a set of pick-locking tools lacking a sense of humor. The note was harmless-"

"Wait there was a note? What did it say?" Henry was positively beaming by now, curious to know what it said. Emma, although less surprised and insistent, probably still waking up, looked at her expectantly.

"It said, '_'cause you're a sky full of stars'_" Regina shrugged, not giving much thoughts to the words.

"I think" Kathryn piped up with a smile, coming inside with some coffee for the three of them and a hot chocolate for Henry, "that she's got a secret admirer."

"I hardly think a cryptic note and a necklace is the start to someone serenading me." Regina accepted the coffee with a smile

Emma smirked, sipping her own graciously accepted coffee. "But you're wearing it." Trust the woman to get back to her teasing ways at the smallest of things.

"I think, Sheriff, we should worry more about who broke in and why, rather than whether or not I'm wearing a necklace." Despite Regina's attempts and promises to be better, she couldn't help but snark back at the Sheriff, who easily got under her skin.

Fortunately, Kathryn kept quiet on the fact that just this morning, Regina didn't even want to bother with contacting the Sheriff about this, taking her own coffee to sit on the other side of the room.

"Well I'm not Sherlock Holmes, so unless you've got a secret camera installed somewhere, I'm not too sure I can help you reverse-engineer the scene, unless by some miracle our serenading prankster left prints all over the gift and are intact after you touching it."

Leave it to Emma Swan to not back down from a snark challenge. She really had no idea how it was that the one person who had more balls than half her kingdom, enough to be able to snark at her without fear of being pulverized, had to be the daughter of her arch-nemesis, who was currently protecting her life against a rogue town. Granted she had never truly met her Evil Queen side, but it still stood to bear, that she didn't care about who Regina had been in the Enchanted Forest.

But right now, her pride came before her admiration, and she replied, "Well Sheriff, if I had known you'd go all CSI on this hours ago, I'd have been more careful."

Emma gave her a 'really?' look, eyebrows making Regina want to yell at the insufferable woman. "Maybe it'd have been a better idea if you'd reported the break in right away? Rather than a casual mention 'hours later'?"

Here Regina faltered. Kathryn swung to the rescue... or at least tried to. "Well we thought about contacting you, but Regina believed that giving attention to the prankster would fuel him to keep at it."

If Emma's eyebrows could raise any higher, she was sure they'd be above her hairline by now. "Okay, my bullshit meter just skyrocketed, and probably broke. That's nonsense and you both know it." Emma made her way to Regina's desk, her strides with purpose, determined to find out the truth.

Just then, Henry decided he was bored of the back-and-forth dance they always did, and randomly blurted out that he was going to get his game, mentioning he left it in Regina's car. The kid was smart, leaving something elsewhere so he could ditch an intense moment whenever his 11 year-old head got tired of adult banter, but the tactic was getting overused. Still, Regina reached into her desk to pull out the car keys handing it over to him.

When the door closed, Emma rounded once again on Regina. "Okay so, I'm waiting."

"I-" How was Regina to explain that this whole situation made her feel weak? Every time someone glared at her, or set out to do serious damage to her, she was reminded that these people would not stop until she was dead. She knew she probably deserved the persecution and verbal punches. But being powerless to get them to see that she was sorry for what she had done, that she was willing to change, and being forced to take all of this punishment reminded her of Mother's teachings, which made her feel even worse.

_'If you let peasants have power over you, let them overtake you, they will use that to their advantage and overthrow you, and a Queen must never allow that to happen. She must also always show she is stronger and more powerful than they could ever be combined. Otherwise she is seen as weak, and Queens can't be weak.'_

And worse, to have the Sheriff being the only one between her and the mob was an even crueler twist, the irony going even deeper knowing it was the daughter of her nemesis. But how could she explain that?

Fortunately she was saved from having to answer right away when the door burst open, bringing in an awestruck Henry.

"You guys have to see this!" Without waiting for them, he ran back out.

With a careful glance and Emma, Regina rounded her desk, and followed Emma and Kathryn outside, and towards the back parking lot where her car was parked.

She kept her car out of the public eye, knowing that the last time she left it out the front and main lot, the windows had been smashed. Sure it took more time to get to her car, but it was worth keeping her vehicle intact.

Going outside, ready for anything, she nearly collided onto Kathryn, who was frozen, mouth gaping, staring at where her car should have been parked.

Well, her car was still there, but whereas the surface of her car was black, it was now bright pink. Someone, and Regina could guess that it was the same fool who had given her the necklace she was wearing now, had done this.

"Are those-" Kathryn paused, nearing the car, to where Henry stood with Emma. "Post-its?"

"Yep!" Henry grinned, glancing at his flabbergasted mother.

Regina, for her part, shut her mouth when Henry looked at her, slowly advancing.

The young boy turned back to the car and added, "And not just any post-its, they're heart shaped!"

It was true, the post-its, in 3 different shades of pink, were all heart shaped. Regina made her way closer to the car, and went over to the front side, which had been facing away from where they came in from, to see if it had been covered with the pink hearts as well, and now that she had taken a good look, she gasped.

The other three, hearing Regina's gasp, rushed over to join her.

The hood of the car was covered in more post-its, but here the decoration was different. Where the rest of the car had been a random medley of hearts in different shades, here there was a clear design in mind. The person had covered the base with the lightest post-its, and then made a giant heart that covered the width of the hood with the medium shade, and then, there was a single post it smack in the middle, in the darkest shade.

Regina neared it, and plucked it, noting that right underneath it, rather than being the medium shade, it was the light shade. Clearly they had thought it through that Regina taking the heart would still leave the original design intact somehow.

"There's something written on it!" Henry looked at the post-it on her hand, and with a jolt, she hadn't realized that it was indeed filled with words. In silver ink, the words made her own heart jump at her throat.

**_I'm gonna give you my heart._**

"Oh yeah, someone is definitely serenading you."

* * *

**Well that was the first chapter! I'm sorry if it got a bit too much explanation, but I feel like it's worth explaining things so everyone's aware what the situation is.**

**So thoughts? Who do you think the serenading person is?**

**I'm kind of on fire with this story, wanting to keep writing, but I want to see what people think of the story before going at it full speed.**

**Let me know what you think and I'll be updating the story soon!**


	2. Mysteries Galore

**Chapter 2! I honestly wasn't expecting so many people to react positively to it!**

**Now this chapter is longer than the first one, and just a note, flashbacks or past scenes are in italics, the bold italics are the notes left by our mysterious serenader.**

**Hope everyone enjoys this!**

* * *

_"Oh yeah, someone is definitely serenading you."_

Regina turned and glared at the Sheriff for her little quip, ready to spit out some retort to put Emma in her place, but she couldn't find her voice. Her heart still hadn't recuperated from the butterflies that started flying in her stomach at reading the message in the post-it, and she frowned.

She couldn't possibly be feeling touched by this maniac's gestures could she?

Nonsense.

She shoved those feelings away, into the closet of mushy feelings she had in her head which was never to be opened. Not that those feelings were big or anything. They were minuscule, nonexistent really. Yes, this was probably some kind of reaction of surprise, nothing more.

"Gotta give props to the Serenader, covering your entire car in post-its, that must've taken a while." Kathryn was, as always, diffusing tension, seeing that her friend was having a battle with herself over something.

"Yeah except now we have to take it all down," Emma replied, grumbling.

"Not necessarily." Regina waved her hand, and the three others watched with fascination as Regina managed to lift the cover of post-its right off of the car, and with a flick of her wrist, the cover seemed to have disappeared, but on closer inspection, Regina had miniaturized the cover, and held it in her palm, stilling the papers in place to keep their shape.

"Woah." Henry was the first to react, but he wasn't mad or angry at his mother having used magic at all. He was slowly gaining respect for his mother's powers, when not used for evil of course, and he neared her open palm, getting the older woman to lower her hand so it was closer to her son, and he took the shape in his hands gingerly, expecting it to collapse in his hands if he grabbed it too hard. With a concentration that could only come from a kid his age, he tested the limits, and saw the car shape remained intact, almost like it was glued together, and he voiced his discovery.

Regina chuckled, "You could say that... like a magical glue." She ruffled his hair, her expression softening, nearly forgetting Kathryn and Emma were there.

Emma smiled at the scene, not daring to interrupt it. Kathryn however, felt a bit more confident to butt in, asking slyly, "So, you gonna keep it?"

Regina did a double take, staring at the two blonde women as if she just noticed they were there. "I-"

"Can we mom? They might be clues to their identity!" Henry was ready to tackle this mystery completely, he would find out who it was.

Regina merely nodded, not trusting herself to not say anything that might betray her growing interest and curiosity at the Serenader's identity and purpose. Henry grinned at her in response, and went to the field right beside the parking lot, still within the three ladies' sights, playing with his new toy.

After a few seconds of silence, Kathryn voiced Regina's worries. "Now we just have to hope he's not a nut job or anything."

"Well so far their only crime is breaking into Regina's office right?" Emma asked, wanting to get the facts right.

"I suppose covering my car with post-its doesn't count as a criminal act." Regina responded, "So for now yes."

The Sheriff cleared her throat. "So, uh... since this clearly looks like it wasn't and won't be a one-time thing, and in case this Serenader does become a whack job, I'll just take your statements now and ask you some questions, if you two don't mind?"

Neither woman responded negatively, so with that, Emma took out a notepad from her jacket, and a pen from who knows where, poised to write. "So just to get this straight, when Regina came in this morning, the box was already there right? And when was that?"

"Around 8:30 am," Regina replied.

"Okay, and you Kathryn, get here earlier than Regina?"

Kathryn nodded. "Yep, Regina usually drops Henry off and then comes here, but I want to get the mail sorted and Regina's meetings and calls squared away by the time she arrives. So I'm here at around 8 am."

Emma nodded, scribbling in her pad. "And you hadn't noticed anything irregular or weird when you came in? This box wasn't in your mail pile or anything?"

The secretary shook her head. "Not at all, it was just your average Thursday morning."

Emma turned back to Regina, pointing her pen at the Mayor, and asked, "Did you see whether the lock was busted or anything when you came in?"

"No Miss Swan, as I said before, I believe this Serenader just owns a lock-picking kit, since when I came in there was no indication anything was out of the ordinary."

Emma nodded absentmindedly, still writing. "Okay so, since I wasn't notified in the moment and able to get a good look at the scene before it was tainted," she glared pointedly at the two women, but they saw the twinkle of mischief in her eyes, and they knew she wasn't actually berating them, "we have nothing to go on with getting their identity." Emma paused, and then seemed like she remembered something. "Oh! What I can do though, is give Ruby a call, see if she can sniff anything out."

The two nodded, and Emma quickly made a call for her friend, and part-time deputy, to come help. Due to Emma's affiliation with the ex-Evil Queen, no one was jumping to take up the role of Deputy, leaving Emma to her devices as the sole police force in the town. Thankfully though, Ruby had risen up to the occasion for when Granny's Diner was having a slow day, and helped when she could. Granny hadn't been a fan of the decision, but she, as well as all the denizens in this town, were slowly coming to terms that everyone here had differing opinions about their situation and took their own stances; she was beginning to let it go, albeit extremely grudgingly.

"I'm surprised you didn't think of this earlier Miss Swan, considering your entire reaction to us taking our time notifying you." Regina couldn't hold back the venom in her voice. Sometimes she just couldn't help herself and was just on a short fuse, although she tried to keep a lid on it as best as she could. It didn't help that something about Emma always made her thoughts go awry, and since Regina was the type of woman who detested even the simplest disturbances, having her mind take that reaction didn't get any points of favor to the blonde.

"Give me a break, I'm running on 3 hours of sleep here." Emma responded, having hung up the phone.

Regina would have thought the Sheriff would tack on a comment along the lines of 'because of you no less' in an attempt to guilt-trip her, but was pleasantly surprised when Emma just left it at that. She nodded, not sure what to say, and kept quiet, waiting for a change of topic or anything.

"You know, I'm curious as to how someone was able to do this to your car," Kathryn mused, and at not receiving an answer from either one, added, "I mean, it looks like it'd be a pain to get all of this together, let alone all this morning."

"When was the last time you saw your car?" The Sheriff was poised once more, pen on paper, ready to write the response.

"Since I came in this morning." Regina's response was curt, and just at that moment, Ruby came bounding up to them.

"Hey! So what's going on?"

"Hey Rubes. So to give you the extremely simple version, someone broke into Regina's office to drop off a gift in an attempt to woo Regina."

Said woman was currently blinking, her hand unconsciously going to stroke the star pendant on her neck, struck by the Sheriff's extremely blunt synopsis of her situation.

Ruby, missing the point completely, turned to Regina and smirked, "Oooh someone's got an admirer? Who's the lucky guy?...or gal, whatever you're into."

Now Regina was truly baffled. She hadn't actually thought about it. During her long reign as Queen, she had enjoyed the company of both men and women, and who was to say this particular suitor was a man?

Emma had responded Ruby's question for her, looking at the Mayor's odd expression with concern, but made no mention of it now. "We don't know, that's why we called you. We were hoping you might be able to sniff them out?"

"Sure thing boss." Ruby went inside, and Kathryn followed her, leaving both of Henry's mothers alone, the Mayor still silent.

"Regina?" Emma tried testing the waters, and was rewarded with a little jump as the other woman seemed to land back to earth. "Are you okay? You seem a little bit out of it, heck, you've been a little bit out of it the entire time."

Regina cleared her throat, avoiding eye contact with the younger woman. "I'm fine Sheriff Swan-"

Emma scoffed, "Lie detector, remember? Try again Madam Mayor."

Regina sighed, willing the gods to grant her patience to get through this day without doing something she'd regret. "Very well, if you insist, I'm merely trying to figure out what angle this Serenader could have in this ridiculous scheme."

"Apart from declaring their undying love for you?" Ruby came back smirking with Kathryn in tow.

"Like I've reiterated countless times today Miss Lucas, I have my doubt anyone in this town feels anything remotely akin to that regarding me."

"Whatever makes you sleep at night Madam Mayor." Ruby put up her hands in a placating gesture of surrender, dropping the subject.

"So, find anything?" Emma asked, turning to her friend.

Ruby shook her head. "Not even a whiff. Just the five of us."

"Could it be because of the amount of time that passed? The Serenader probably dropped it off in the morning or late last night." Emma looked like she was wracking her brains to think up of a solution.

"Yeah, probably that. Wait, why did you wait so long to call me then?" Ruby asked, turning to each woman, accusatory glances headed to them.

"Well the Mayor and her secretary here didn't think it important to let me know until a little while ago, and I just remembered your 'skills' a few minutes ago." She ignored the intense glare Regina was throwing at her for her quip; at Ruby's raised eyebrow, she added, "Oh come on, I'm running on a couple of hours of sleep and then some, plus a ton of caffeine; remembering that my friend within a town of fairy tales has super-human smelling skills because she can turn into a wolf is definitely not something I'll easily remember."

The Sheriff had a point, and everyone quieted at that. They could hardly blame her, she was trying her best, which was more than could be said for most of the town.

Henry chose now to come bounding back, "Hi Ruby!"

"Hey Henry! Whatcha got there?" She gestured to the small pink car cover her was holding.

"Oh this was from the Serenader!" Henry smiled at her, holding up the car so she could get a closer look at it.

Now Ruby was confused. "Wait, you mean to tell me this secret admirer broke into the Mayor's office just so they could drop off a car made out of pink heart-shaped post-its glued together?"

Emma jumped in before her friend officially went crazy trying to piece this one together. "How about I explain it to you on the way home? Henry has to start his homework and I'm sure Regina has to get back to work."

No one countered that plan, not even Henry, running up to his mother to say bye for now, and to Kathryn. He would see his other mother tonight, but he still gave her a tight hug nonetheless.

As they walked, Emma explained how the whole thing went, adding little comments that she knew she couldn't voice in front of the Mayor. Henry was walking a bit further ahead, giving the two friends time to talk.

"So, who came up with the name 'Serenader'?" Ruby asked, again missing the bigger picture.

After a beat, Emma shrugged, "No idea, I think we just started calling them that."

"Well, it's catchy, I like it. Now we just have to put a face to the name."

"Something tells me it won't be that easy," Emma sighed, wondering how this entire thing would pan out

* * *

Later that night, after Regina had cooked them a wonderful meal, Emma was clearing things away in the kitchen, while Regina sat with Henry in the living room. Their apartment was relatively large, large enough that they had an extra room big enough to accommodate Regina with them, even though at the time they bought the place, neither Henry nor Emma knew Regina would be staying with them.

Emma smiled as Henry grabbed a piece of paper and mentioned he was starting a list of suspects, crossing them off when they could provide an alibi.

"Hey Ma, where were you this morning?" Henry turned to Emma, looking super serious as he asked his question.

Emma decided to at least deign his son with concrete details that could provide her with a pretty busy alibi. "I was helping Mr. Nelson take out the hatchet that someone had wedged into his work-bench. Apparently someone had a party cutting down a bunch of his trees during the night, and you know Mr. Nelson, sleeps like the logs he works on, and they just stole everything. Poor guy was devastated, months of work and dedication gone, and I spent the rest of the day trying to find his things, no luck. Where someone could hide some 15 or so entire tree trunks and other logs without anyone in a small town noticing is beyond me."

Regina had been listening intently, brow furrowing. "And there were no leads?"

Emma shook her head, "Nothing definite. I mean we're dealing with someone strong, 'cause let me tell you, it was not easy taking that thing out. Maybe also a group of people... there's no way a single person, no matter how strong they are, could take those trees and logs all by themselves in an entire night after cutting them all down."

Regina tried to wrack her brain, seeing if she could figure out who it could be that had that skillset.

"Just humor me for a bit...we don't have a Hercules or any of those other Greek mythology guys right?"

Regina smiled despite herself. "No, we're limited to just fairy tales."

"Okay good, I wouldn't want to deal with that headache. So, know any super-strong beings that could pull this off?"

"None off the top of my head. I'd have to research more into who I brought to Storybrooke."

"How about you, Ace Detective, any leads on this mystery I'm working on?" Emma grinned, she was having way too much fun with this.

The young boy shook his head. His body then betrayed him by letting out a yawn, and Regina fussed around that he should head to bed, especially since tomorrow was a school day, and that he would have plenty of sleep during the weekend.

Henry went grudgingly, wanting to finish his suspects list, but Regina was having none of it. Once she came back from getting Henry to bed, Emma had already finished cleaning up, now sitting on the couch. Regina went to sit on the same couch, but of course keeping a respectable distance.

"Seems like Storybrooke is turning into a frenzy of mysteries lately," Emma said after a couple of moments of silence.

Regina scoffed, "Beats having everyone focused on ways to kill me."

Emma cleared her throat, shuffling uncomfortably. "I- Well, Regina, I hate to be the bearer or bad news, but I doubt whoever stole those trees was doing it to fulfill some kind of woodworking fetish."

Regina, understanding what the other woman was referring to, began fidgeting with her hands, a nervous habit she had that her mother had detested and tried in multiple ways with no success to get her to drop the habit. She had heard that this world had a nasty way of dealing with witches, burning them at stakes and all, and could imagine some of the citizens of Storybrooke might've wanted to keep that tradition going.

"Hey," Emma reached over and grabbed Regina's hands, covering them with her own. "Don't worry about it, I promised I wouldn't let anything happen to you, and I'm sticking to that promise. If anyone wants to get at you, they'll have to go through me first, and I won't go down without a good fight."

Regina looked up at her, willing her body to not betray her. Her emotions thankfully stayed in check, and she managed a small smile in return. Thinking on it, she remembered that the very first night in this apartment had also had the two women in similar positions.

* * *

_Regina had just put Henry to bed, and found the younger woman in the living room, standing with her hands in her jean's back pockets, looking at her expectantly. Regina wasn't sure how she made it through today, her mind still reeling at seeing her house for the past three decades in such a state. She could hardly call it a house after the number the hate-filled residents had pulled. Now she had to go out and find a place to stay, which would prove hard since Granny wasn't her biggest fan, and wouldn't allow her to rent a room at the Inn._

_She had tried so hard not to cry, but by now her defense was weakening, resolve faltering, and her mayoral mask, ever passive and consistent, gone. She felt strong arms around her, and Regina didn't care that she was in the arms of Snow White's daughter; she needed this._

_After a few minutes of silence, where Regina sobbed quietly, and Emma held her, gently rocking back and forth, feet shifting weight, they separated. However, Regina stopped stepping back as Emma's hands rested on her shoulders, and held her there._

_"Look Regina, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye, and we're probably the farthest thing from friends, but I promise you, no one's going to hurt you. I will do everything in my power to make sure this town reins their vitriol in. I'll have a talk with everyone tomorrow, and hopefully they'll respect the word of the law more than their burning hatred, okay?"_

_Regina could barely react. She nodded meekly. Certainly Henry had put her up to this, but she was glad that the Sheriff at least humored her son enough to say this._

_"Also, while you get your home renovated and all that jazz, you're more than welcome to stay here. This apartment has an extra room so-"_

_"Miss Swan, while I appreciate the offer, I couldn't possibly impose further." She then jerked back, forcing Emma to let her shoulders go. She wasn't someone people would take pity on, and she'd be damned if she let anyone treat her as such._

_Two could play at this game, and Emma was getting tired of the other woman acting like she was bullet-proof, and nothing bothered her. "Regina, I know you've got this entire Evil Queen 'image' to uphold, but will you look at the situation with some common sense for just one second? You're in a town where most of the people in it either hate your guts or wouldn't shed a tear if you died. You have no home, and no one in Storybrooke is selling or leasing, and even if they were, I'm positive they wouldn't sell to you. I'm here offering you a house where you can live for as long as needed, and you can see our son on a regular basis, so will you let your pride take the fall and just accept it?"_

_Regina was sure that if she had any less fine motor control, her jaw would've dropped. Emma could certainly make a hell of an argument, and after a few seconds debating the pros and cons, accepted the offer._

* * *

The two women had reached a happy rhythm ever since Regina had moved in, knowing that for the foreseeable future, they would be working together. Although it had taken Regina a bit of time to get used to the blonde as an ally, and getting into the mindset that Emma wasn't taking advantage of this fiasco to try and whisk Henry away, she was secretly glad to have the other woman to count on for anything, even if most of the time the Sheriff managed to drive her insane with her insufferable attitude and quips.

Thankfully that attitude allowed for Regina to keep considering the Sheriff as only a bearable ally, and nothing else. She had enough to deal with without also having to consider what the young woman meant to her.

She saw that their hands were still together, and found that she didn't find this feeling unpleasant. However, it was getting late, and she needed sleep. She reclaimed her hands, feeling a pang as her hands left the comfort of the Savior, and cleared her throat. "I should be heading to sleep."

Emma nodded, "Yeah, and I gotta head out for night duty-"

"You can't possibly be considering going back out, Miss Swan."

"Careful Regina, someone might get the impression you care about me."

Regina spluttered a bit, something outright shocking to both women, since Regina never spluttered, causing her to turn a few shades of red at the fact.

"Don't worry your secret's safe with me, your Majesty." Emma was trying to cover up her laughter with her hand as to not wake Henry, but it was proving hard every time she looked at Regina's flaming cheeks.

Regina, in a poor attempt to change the subject back to neutral ground, said "Whatever the case, you're not going back out in a sleep-deprived state."

Emma, once her laughter had died down, shook her head. "Believe me Regina, there's nothing I'd want more than go to sleep and not wake up for another day or so, but no can do. Evil never sleeps."

Regina smirked, "Well Miss Swan, in that case you have nothing to worry about, since 'evil' is right here and is planning on having a good night's sleep."

The Sheriff rolled her eyes, smiling, "Well look who has a sense of humor."

"Well, if you won't do it with consideration to your well-being, then I, as your boss, am ordering you to stay in tonight."

"Seriously?" Emma's expression was one of total disbelief. "Look, I'm only going to be working till noon, Ruby already said she'd cover for me in the afternoon alright?"

"You're telling me that Ruby will take your shift right in the middle of Friday rush?" It was well known that everyone in town went to Granny's on Friday in anticipation of the weekend.

"Yeah, she managed to rope Belle into taking her shift at the diner."

"And who's taking care of things at the library?"

"Still under renovations, so there's no need for her to be there."

"Yes, of course. Having the Dark One as your boyfriend must make it a lot easier to get renovations done on your property." Regina could hardly help the venom that accompanied her statement, but it was still damning to think about it. The Dark Curse had been his, but since she was the one to enact it, she was solely responsible for being the cause of this entire ordeal, and he was left untouched, believed to be a victim of the curse like everyone else.

Emma didn't know what to say, and was thankfully saved from doing so by her phone buzzing. "Sheriff's department-"

Regina could hear someone talking hurriedly, along with some very loud sneezes.

"Okay, I'll be right there Tom- uh Sneezy." Emma shook her head and hung up the phone. "I never know if I should call people by their cursed name or what."

Regina smiled, but her smile faltered as she remembered what she had told the pharmacist. "You're going out?"

"Yeah, apparently someone robbed but didn't rob him."

Regina was confused. "How does that happen?"

"Well, they took some of his merchandise, but they gave him the money for it."

"What did they steal?"

"Heart-shaped pink post-its."

* * *

**And that was the second chapter!**

**Man the Serenader has a streak of badness in them huh? Plus the tree thieves? Yikes!**

**I was going to make this chapter go until the next morning and the next note, but I just kept writing scenes with these two crazy idiots, and I think otherwise I'll just bore people with the length.**

**Thank you once again for all the reviews and everything, let me know what you think!**


	3. Flattery Will get you Anywhere

**The updates keep on coming!**

**I'm so beyond flattered people are liking the fic!**

**Just a couple of notes that I kept on forgetting to mention, I will be shifting around some show canon to fit my story, but if it does happen, I will mention it. Mainly I have Henry be a little bit more understanding because Regina was his mother for nearly his entire life and took care of him and he was a bit harsh on her in the show, and I feel that Regina would've talked to him to clear the air.**

**Also, let me know how you're liking the pacing of the story, and characterization. Is it good, bad, slow, fast?**

**Finally, I'll be trying to get off my lazy butt and do a cover for the story, so hopefully by next chapter I'll have it**

**Enjoy this new chapter as things start hitting off!**

* * *

As her alarm rang, Regina let out a groan. She wasn't exactly what you'd call a morning person, especially after so many years of having to wrangle Henry out of bed and ready for school; though he made her look like a morning person considering his comatose tendencies, and semi zombie-like state.

Thankfully, she was no longer alone in having to deal with Henry in the morning, and smiled into her pillow at the sound of breakfast being made. Her smile faltered at the realization that she practically admitted to herself that she enjoyed having a domestic relationship with Emma Swan. She groaned, all this lovey-dovey nonsense with the Serenader was making her soft.

As Regina made her way to the kitchen some minutes later, she saw Emma flipping a pancake with ease, a plate with more pancakes by her side on the counter, and Henry was sitting on a chair in front of the table, using his empty plate as a pillow, although Regina couldn't see how that could even be remotely comfortable.

"Morning Regina, sleep well?" Emma smiled as she set down the pan and made her way to the table, trying to figure out how to exactly extract the plate from under Henry.

"Quite well, Miss Swan, your-" Regina faltered, looking at the other woman's bags under her eyes, and now taking in the fact that Emma was fully dressed, rather than in pajamas as she normally would wear, drawing the conclusion herself. The woman hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, and had just come in from her shift, and would probably be heading out again once breakfast was over.

"My what?" Emma paused from her spot, looking at the older woman curiously.

"Nothing." She made her way to Henry and placed a hand softly on his back, rubbing circles in order to slowly wake him up. "Henry honey, wake up."

"I dunwanno" Henry mumbled, trying to shift out from under Regina's hand in order to go back to sleep. She sat down on the chair beside him, still rubbing his back.

Emma smirked, and joined in, "Well, if you won't, I guess you won't be having these pancakes..."

Henry shot up like he'd been electrocuted, a new-found source of energy fueling him. Emma managed to swipe out the plate now that it was free, and served the pancakes, grabbing the plate in front of Regina and filling it up as well. Once she was done with that, Emma started pouring coffee, noting that the Sheriff was serving herself a hearty amount of coffee, clearly needing it to survive the final hours of her shift.

Henry practically wolfed down his pancakes, the syrup sticking to his face, and Regina sent him to the bathroom to wash up as soon as he was done.

After a few minutes of more silence, because breakfast in this house was always deathly quiet, Regina finally spoke up after Emma once again tried to hide a yawn.

"Miss Swan, I must insist that you head to sleep."

Emma groaned, "Regina when are you going to drop it? I'm not heading to sleep until 2, when Ruby ends her lunch shift and will be able to take over at the station."

"I will not have the town's only police force out of commission because she's working herself to death!" Where this anger and protectiveness had emerged from, Regina didn't know, but she went with it.

"And what exactly would you have done if I hadn't been able to stop some delinquents from trying to harm Ashley, Sean and Alexandra?"

Regina faltered here. "W-what?"

"You heard me." At the mayor's unasked question, Emma explained, "I'm not too sure why they picked them, I'm guessing easy targets. I got there just in time."

"Who was it?"

"Wayward Gang. You know how they are, and they can sure pack a punch." Emma unconsciously moved a hand to rub her stomach, flinching a bit at the contact.

Regina was beginning to see red. "Did they hurt you?"

Emma shook her head, "Nothing major."

"Let me see."

"It's fine Regina, Whale patched me up-"

"Now."

Like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Emma gave a small pout, in a last ditch attempt to sway the older woman. At having no success, she lifted her shirt a bit to reveal bandage wrapping around her chest. Regina's eyes narrowed. This wasn't a simple punch to the gut.

"Someone stabbed you."

Emma lowered her shirt, rolling her eyes."And they're currently inside a cell getting lectured by David and Mary Margaret, with Leroy standing guard with Granny's crossbow."

"Who is?" Henry had just come back, fully dressed with his backpack on, looking curiously between his two mothers.

Emma smiled. "Just some bad people, Henry. But you have to get going to school." Looking at the distant look in Regina's eyes, she added, "How about I take you, kid? Give your mom some time to get ready and everything?"

Henry always welcomed more time to spend with his biological mother, and went to wait for her at the door.

The younger woman sighed, Regina still hadn't said a word to her. She opened and closed her mouth various times, willing words to come out, and yet nothing happened. She finally resigned herself that she couldn't say anything to the brunette, at least nothing that wouldn't result in making a fool of herself because the blonde was an expert at shoving her foot in her mouth, especially in front of the Mayor.

With a last look, she turned and left the apartment with Henry in tow, leaving Regina to her own devices, and after hearing the bug pull away, she felt a deep anger boiling inside her, one she hadn't felt in a really long while, not even when she had seen her house torn to shambles, and her hands started to shake. She grabbed the coffee cup Emma had deposited in front of her earlier in an attempt to quell her hands, but it was no use.

Gripping the cup with her right hand, she whipped around and threw the cup across the room, coffee flying everywhere and the cup shattering into a million pieces on contact with the wall, any leftover coffee that had survived the trip was now coloring the wall brown.

* * *

Once Regina arrived at the office, she frowned at seeing that her friend wasn't in yet. She looked at the clock on the wall, noting it was already 8:15. She shrugged it off, it was probably just a long line-up at Granny's. As she made her way to the door she heard someone approaching, and saw Kathryn all but stumble through the door, carrying the mail and coffee in one hand, and on the other hand, a stuffed teddy bear, and the keys she used to open the door.

Regina smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Is it an anniversary or is Jim feeling particularly generous?"

Kathryn shook her head, and extended her arm towards Regina. "It's from the Serenader."

Regina barely registered the words. After the disaster that was breakfast this morning, she just wanted this day to be over, and to curl up in her bed and just not come out again. She was feeling overwhelmed to say the least, she didn't need anything more to be added to her already hectic life. She gingerly took the bear from her secretary.

The bear was simple, a honey brown colour, sporting an adorable little expression with beady eyes that made her heart melt. the little bear itself had a star stitched to its hands, so it looked like it was holding it. In a semi crude hand-writing, there were words stitched onto the star itself.

**_"'Cause you're a sky full of stars"_**

Kathryn, having deposited the rest of her things on her desk, glanced over Regina's shoulder to see the bear in more detail. "Aren't those the same words as yesterday?"

Regina nodded. "Seems like our Serenader is running out of ideas, and it's only the second day."

"Maybe it's a poem? And the stanzas are getting repeated?" Kathryn shrugged, and then offered a smile, coming to stand in front of her friend. "Well, at the very least, it's cute."

Regina could barely hide the smile and small blush that crept up. Yes, it was a sweet gesture, and Regina couldn't find it in her heart to lie and say the bear wasn't completely adorable. "Yes, I suppose so."

Kathryn's smile grew wider, nudging her friend playfully. "Well look who's getting smitten by a secret admirer."

Regina lightly smacked her friend, "Oh shush you. Don't forget, this Serenader is a delinquent that broke into my office, and the pharmacy."

Kathryn did a double take at the new information. "Oh?"

"Yes, apparently they broke into the pharmacy to buy heart-shaped post-its and left money at the till." Regina shook her head, willing her feelings of fondness for the Serenader to go away. "Hopefully the Sheriff's station manages to catch this thief before he robs this town blind."

The blonde scoffed. "If the town doesn't lynch him first."

"What?"

"Apparently word got out about the Serenader, and no one seems to be too excited about it. It's mainly why I took so long to get here, everyone is at Granny's Diner to hear some more gossip about who the mysterious person who is apparently smitten with you."

Regina frowned. She had hoped this wouldn't become town gossip but it was futile in thinking that, after all, covering her entire car with pink post-its wasn't exactly implying subtlety was part of this lunatic's M.O. "Did they question you?"

Kathryn nodded. "They were under the impression you had grabbed some poor soul to be your scapegoat, as a sort of big plan to humanize you. One was convinced you had spiked someone's drink with love potion down at the Rabbit Hole."

Regina was flabbergasted. Was this how it was going to be from now on? Everyone trying to find an ulterior motive to everything that she did or that might surround her?

The secretary noted the silence, and cleared her throat. "So, should I save us the lecture and call Emma now?"

Regina meekly nodded, and without another word, went into her office and closed the door, not even bothering to pick up her mail. But, Kathryn noticed with a smile, the little teddy bear was still safely in Regina's arms.

* * *

Emma's morning was hectic. It was as if the universe knew that she was practically running on nothing due to severe lack of sleep, crazy schedule, and being skewered, and therefore decided to keep testing her limits.

First the whole Serenader business had her running around town.

She also had to keep an eye out to try and find the tree thieves that took Mr. Nelson's property, and discover what exactly their purpose with more than a dozen tree trunks.

Now she had the Wayward Gang all locked up and having their rights read to them by David and Mary Margaret, and having Leroy as their warden.

As if all of that wasn't enough, she was now fielding calls because somehow, news of the Serenader had gotten out, she could bet a month's salary she knew who exactly spilled the beans, and would be having a stern talk to her part time deputy on the meaning of sensitive matters and how to deal with them.

"...but Sheriff! You can't allow for that- that _monster_ to keep stringing around some poor soul like that! You need to start preparing a committee that will take care of the misguided man and get them to confiscate all the evils that woman has hidden away, and then lock _her_ up!"

Emma was sure that if Ms. Nesbitt had been in front of her, she would've had a very hard time trying to keep from slapping her. Taking a deep breath, she put on her best diplomatic voice as she replied, "Look, Ms. Nesbitt, I understand that you're apprehensive about Regina, but will you _please_ just let me do my job? I will get to the bottom of this, and I can assure you, whoever it is: man, woman or something in between, that if they are for some reason under some sort of influence, we will cure them of it. How does that sound?"

Ms. Nesbitt was very much not okay with this, claiming about the devil and witches and evils in the world. Emma ungraciously hung up on her. She'd later claim the line got cut, because she would call back, but Ruby could deal with her, she'd call it punishment for having let the news get out. She groaned, very loudly, sinking her head into her desk. Maybe she could just close her eyes for a couple of seconds...

_KNOCK KNOCK. _

David was at the door, and although it was open, he stood by the entrance waiting for her permission to enter.

"Hey, did the Wayward idiots piss themselves already or?" Emma smirked. She had to leave the room when Ms. Nesbitt had called, right when the jailed delinquents were being given a long list of their crimes, and punishment for each of them.

David smiled, chuckling. "Suffice it to say they're begging for forgiveness."

"How nice." Emma returned the smile in kind, and it then faltered as the air grew awkward around them.

It wasn't that David and Mary Margaret were bad people, and heck, if 20 years ago she had been placed in a home with them, she'd have believed she was in heaven. But that was exactly her problem. She was 28 years old, she had finally gotten over her complex over not having parents, and finding out that they were very much alive and wanted nothing more than to engulf her into their lives had her internally panicking.

She wasn't cut out for this kind of thing, all of that without considering the whole fairytale aspect of it. Now _that_ was just a one-way ticket to insanity.

David cleared his throat, "So, who was that?"

"Ms. Nesbitt. She practically wants to exorcise the entire town and Regina to cleanse the town of evil and witchcraft."

"The secret admirer nonsense?"

Emma nodded. "Yep."

David shrugged his shoulders, "I'm sure it'll die down eventually. Probably someone who was in love with her during the curse and hasn't been able to shake it off."

Emma made a noncommittal noise. Clearly no one believed that Regina could even be loved.

"Well anyway, Mary Margaret and I have to be heading off, Leroy'll keep guard while they're still here."

Emma turned back to her desk, thinking the discussion to be over. Mary Margaret had made her way to her husband, standing beside him by the door.

"Emma..." Emma could just hear that David was trying to figure out how to word things, and she knew just what the topic would be about. They had vaguely tried to find a way to approach the topic peacefully; it seems they decided to just go for the direct route. It took all her willpower to not snap the pencil in her hand. This was great, all that she needed to tack on to a great week.

Mary Margaret took over for him, seeing her was getting nowhere. "David and I were wondering...we know that this must've come as a shock to you, finding your parents, and we want to get to know you! And we're sure you want to get to know us-"

Emma decided to kill that idea before it could get any further. She _really_ didn't need this. "Look, I'm really not in the mood for-"

Apparently no one would be getting to have their say on the matter as the phone rang. Emma silently counted to 10, willing her patience to deal with the caller, who was probably Ms. Nesbitt coming to tear up a storm. She was pleasantly surprised to hear Kathryn on the line.

"Everything alright?" Emma had an inkling of what the subject was about, but always better to ask first.

"Yeah, it's just that the Serenader dropped off another gift, thought it would be better to call you now rather than do a repeat of yesterday."

Emma chuckled. "Well it's step forward from yesterday. I'll be there in five."

Having hung up with the secretary, Emma glanced up, seeing her supposed parents still standing in the doorway. It wasn't hard to think of them as friends, but parents was a very far cry from that, she really wasn't ready to consider them as anything more than just that, friends, and that conversation would really have to wait for another time.

"Look uhm, duty calls and all that."

David looked worried. "Is everything alright? Something I can help with?"

Emma shook her head. "Nah, just Regina's mysterious Serenader dropped off another gift."

"Emma..." Mary Margaret took a deep breath. Last time they tried to breach this topic about Regina, things had ended badly between the family, and led to Emma moving out of the house. "I know you're the Sheriff, but Regina dangerous, and for all we know this could be another plot to take revenge on us-"

Emma really didn't have time for this either, and heading for the other door, yanked it open and slammed it behind her, heading outside, but the two royals weren't done yet.

"Emma if you'd just listen-"

"No!" She whipped around to face them, pointing an accusatory finger at them, "I have listened ad nauseum to this town preach about Regina's downright evilness from one thousand different perspectives, and you know what? I don't see it! I see a woman trying to make amends, but gets all of that thrown back at her face because no one in this town is able to move on from their little makeshift fairytale ideal of how the world works!

"You guys all need to understand that in this world, there's no such thing as good or evil. The whole world is just morally gray, and everyone fluctuates between the two depending on what's more convenient. I refuse to believe that my new roommate isn't capable of changing, _especially_ if it's for Henry. I know that she was the Evil Queen in your world, but in this one, she's Regina Mills. I don't care if I have to step in front of a bullet for you guys to get it through your thick fairytale skulls, but I refuse to let anyone hurt anyone else in this town, and especially not Regina Mills, is that clear?"

The entire station was quiet, even the six members of the Wayward Gang, split between the two sole cells in the station, were muted.

The first person to break the silence was someone no one had noticed coming inside.

"Man, if policing doesn't work out for you Em, you can always turn to public speaking, you rock at it!" Ruby, sporting a wolf-like grin, had been recording the entire speech with her phone, and was currently saving it for future occasions.

Emma grumbled, and without another word, she grabbed her deputy by the arm and dragged her outside and towards the cruiser, heading to Town Hall.

* * *

Kathryn looked up as the doors were slammed open, and saw none other than Emma stalk inside, the scowl set on her face looking like nothing she'd seen before from the usually friendly woman, and a worried Ruby trailing behind. Taking charge of the situation, she asked, "Everything alright? I hope I didn't pull you away from anything important."

Emma shook her head, reeling her anger back in. "Not at all."

"More like you prevented her from word-slamming the entire station." Ruby was sniggering. Emma gave her a pointed look that in no uncertain terms told her that if she said one more word, her career as a deputy would be very short and end very fast. And she still hadn't even lectured her for having ran her mouth about the Serenader.

Kathryn was sure there was a story there, but for now she had more important matters to attend to. "Regina's inside, but I warn you, she's a bit stressed."

Emma and Ruby nodded, and walked over to Regina's door. As Kathryn let the Mayor know they had arrived, Regina was taking a deep breath, trying to will her emotions to not get the better of her.

"Alright Regina, what did the Serenader drop off this time?" Emma sauntered into the room with Ruby in tow.

"A teddy bear, holding a star and the same words from yesterday." Regina extended the arm holding the bear to give to the Sheriff.

Ruby tried to sniff the bear, but no success; this guy must be good. "Must be a poem."

Regina nodded, "My thoughts exactly."

"Seriously? Does _no one_ in this town listen to music?"

"The diner plays music all the time, I just keep tuning it out," Ruby replied, shrugging.

"_Really?_ You have super hearing and you can tune things out?" Emma turned to face the wolf, skepticism all over her face.

Ruby shrugged, "Superman does it."

Before the conversation could derail further, because the last thing Regina was in the mood for was to keep hearing these two hold conversation in her office, she said in a clipped tone, "Miss Swan, why do you ask? Do you recognize the words?"

"Yeah, it's a new song by Coldplay, you guys never heard of it?"

Ruby's eyes widened. "Oh! _I have!_ Timmy is obsessed with the song and plays it on the radio all the time!"

Regina couldn't be less amused. "It honestly took you that long to connect the dots? What kind of a police force am I funding when they take an entire day to figure this out?"

"The only police force you have?" Ruby had had her own fair share of morning madness and wasn't any less grouchy. The customers at the Diner had driven her insane, and she knew she had a long day ahead of her.

Regina's eyes narrowed. She didn't have time to deal with this. "Well Miss Lucas-"

"Okay!" Emma interrupted in a loud and chipper voice, gathering everyone's attention. Once she was sure they were listening, she continued, "we established the Serenader is using song lyrics. They know how to sew, even if it's amateur-ish, and they're not afraid to break the law, but will still pay for their merchandise."

"That paints a lovely picture Sheriff. I'm glad to know I attract all the right people." Regina once again couldn't keep the bite out of her voice. She remembered last night and added, "what did happen when you went to the pharmacy?"

Emma shrugged. "The usual. Completely confused store owner who hadn't even realized he had been swiped, only realized it after he closed up shop and was counting his earnings, and he spotted some extra money wrapped in an elastic bad, with a post-it note saying 'thank you'. This one, however, was your average yellow square post-it, so at the very least they're not trying to woo Sneezy."

"Wonderful, I'd hate to have to compete against him."

"Full of snark this morning, Madam Mayor." Ruby wasn't really helping her case, but Regina thankfully took it in stride.

"Yes well, I had a hearty serving this morning after your boss explained her escapade last night."

"Oh yeah, ouch." Ruby turned to her friend, "how're you feeling?"

"Like I was stabbed." Emma deadpanned.

"I imagined as much." Ruby gave her friend a gentle nudge. "But seriously, if you want to call it a day, I can take over from here, Belle came early and already took over my shift. Plus no offense, but you look like shit, you clearly need sleep."

"See Miss Swan? I'm not the only one who thinks you need some well-deserved rest. I'm sure Miss Lucas will keep this town safe." Regina smirked at the blonde, but it was a playful smirk, something Ruby had never thought the Mayor could pull off.

"Fine fine, but call me if shit starts hitting the fan."

"Will do boss."

After making sure there were no more clues to gather from the bear, they decided it was time to leave. Ruby, being closer to the door, was already by Kathryn's desk outside before Regina remembered something.

"Oh, and Miss Swan?"

Emma paused from her way out the door, turning around to face the Mayor. "Yeah?"

"Come here."

Emma raised an eyebrow, but did as she was asked, coming to stand behind the chairs in front of Regina's desk.

The older woman stood up and made her way to the blonde. "Raise your shirt."

Emma was sure she heard wrong. "W-what?"

"Your shirt, Miss Swan. I don't see why you have to keep dealing with that awful wound, and yes" Regina could see Emma was about to protest, and decided to beat her to it, "I can see you wince when you walk. So I will heal you."

Emma was flabbergasted. She didn't say a word as she raised her shirt a bit, and let Regina work her magic, feeling relief instantly.

* * *

When Emma entered the apartment, the first thing she noticed was that there was a barely noticeable coffee stain on the wall. Had Regina thrown her mug? She made a mental note to ask her about it tonight, as long as continuing to remind herself to have a talk with Ruby about the whole spilling the beans on the Serenader.

She finally had peace and quiet, having just survived talking to Mrs. Goose, dotty old apartment neighbor, who was delighted that someone was once again attempting to fix the entrance way lights. Ever since forever, the path leading up to the apartment building had been lacking any kind of lights, but the patio lights that the residents had tried again and again to install would never work. Every now and then some valiant soul attempted to try it, but every time it ended in failure.

But now someone else had started their attempts, and Mrs. Goose was excited to see what would happen tonight since they only turned on when it was dark out. Emma had assured the woman she'd be on the lookout to see what happened, and barely escaped without having to start another topic of conversation.

She now made a beeline for her bed, barely remembering to take off her boots and jacket, and practically fell asleep right away. She didn't even remember to take out the bandages still covering her stomach, but she knew she was fully healed.

* * *

Regina was ready for this day to end. She had spent the entire day waiting for the second shoe to drop, waiting to see what else the Serenader had for her. But there was nothing. Perhaps the town had scared him off? She hoped not. Wait, why was she all of a sudden worried about him? Or her? There were too many questions and too many variables to even consider falling for them, not to mention the nagging voice at the back of her head that kept reminding her she was the Evil Queen, and evil never got their happy endings, especially not in a town that hated her.

She wasn't going to come in during the weekend, on account of her trying to keep fixing up her house, so she had stayed in late to do any work that she had left over so that come Monday she wouldn't be overwhelmed with everything.

As she wrapped everything up, she noticed that it was already dark outside. How time had flown. She hoped Emma had gotten some sleep and fed their child, otherwise Henry would be very hungry by now. She shook her head. Here she was again, imagining a wonderfully domestic situation with Emma, as if they were...no, she couldn't think in those terms. Emma was obviously just doing their son a favor, nothing more.

She made sure the doors were locked and made her way to her car, where it was waiting, no special notes or anything.

Coming home, she parked her car and made her way up the walkway, after taking a few steps, something by her feet lit up. Taking a look down, she saw that two patio lights, one on either side of her, had lit up as she passed by them. Someone had finally fixed the lights it seems. She had to remember to somehow commend whoever had fixed it.

As she continued walking, the lights kept turning on. It seemed almost...magical, and the irony was not lost on her. As she neared the door to enter the building, the last set of lights that lit up were both to her right side. Curious, she turned, and her heart skipped a beat. A little ways beyond the two set of lights, in some kind of fluorescent paint, the grass was painted with words.

_**"'Cause you light up the path"**_

The other shoe dropped, and she couldn't be more flattered. At the end of the word path, a lily flower stem lay beside it, the pink tips also with their own like-colored fluorescent paint.

She picked the flower up and smiled. Even if the Serenader turned to be a hoax, this was still one of the sweetest gestures she had ever seen.

* * *

Once the next day had rolled around, Regina was still extremely giddy. Henry was convinced that his mother had been replaced with a robot.

The kid had whispered to Emma conspiratorially, knowing fully that his other mother was listening. "Check her for wires ma!" They had had a good laugh over it, Regina entering the spirit and even acting a bit robotic to humor Henry.

But truly, Regina really was just herself. It had just been a really long time since she had a reason to feel this happy, and she couldn't even thank whoever it was.

As the three went to work on the mansion, they noted that the Serenader hadn't left them anything.

"Maybe he's busy on weekends?" Henry mused.

"Probably, but then again, so are we. Come on let's see if we can't clear up your room from the debris." Emma then raced Henry into the house, and Regina smiled, slowly following them in.

They had decided to first clear out all the damaged parts of the house and then start to fix everything.

The day had gone by, and not one message, neither on Sunday.

However, the citizens of Storybrooke only got more and more riled up with the silence. Although Emma had had a talk with Ruby about keeping quiet on the Serenader stuff, but it was futile, this person wasn't one for subtlety, and the late night message in front of their apartment had traveled the town like wildfire, especially with Mrs. Goose spreading the news to everyone that would hear her.

When Monday came around, Regina was wondering if there would be any messages waiting for her by the time she got to her office. She hoped the Serenader wasn't scared off by the town, though she was be simultaneously surprised by their bravery and persistence.

Having reached her office with no notes, she couldn't help by feel a bit disappointed, but on Friday the Serenader also took their time to give her the last note, so she would just have to wait.

And she didn't have to wait long. Kathryn, once again late, came in with a grin on her face, coffee in one hand and the usual mail on her other hand.

"What's got you so happy?" Regina asked, feeling the contagious grin pulling at her own lips.

Kathryn said nothing, putting the mail and coffee down and fishing for her phone, and after a few seconds, she showed the screen to her friend.

It was a picture, on Main Street apparently, where a huge white banner was hanging. In bold black letters, a message was written on it.

**"I don't care, go on and tear me apart"**

The message was clearly written for the denizens who were criticizing the Serenader, and Regina felt her grin grow wider.

Although she refused to listen to the song, feeling like she would prefer to be surprised, she couldn't help but wonder what new ways to woo her the Serenader would try.

* * *

**Things are getting crazier!**

**And man these chapters keep getting longer and longer!**

**Whatever shall happen?**

**Anyway! Sorry if I skipped the weekend part a bit, but I feel like if I go day by day, this fic will take forever to really get going, and I don't want to bore anyone! But don't worry I will have plenty of bonding scenes with our favorite family!**

**So theories? Do you think the Serenader will try to communicate with Regina outside the lyrics? Who do you think will be the first person to discover the Serenader's identity?**

**I'd love to hear your ideas!**

**Also, I'm gonna try to participate in the swanqueen week, so if you're up for it, be on the lookout for it!**

**Thanks for the continued support and reviews! I'll be sure to respond to them!**


	4. Bold Moves

**And back with this story! **

**As promised, shiny new cover! Not my best work, and kinda vague, but it works for now.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed a preview of my next stories if you followed my SQW prompts, I'll get to writing them soon!**

**So now let's see what the Serenader and our favorite ladies were up to!**

**Thank you for the continued support!**

* * *

Regina was truly having an abysmal morning. After the very bold outcry against the town earlier, the Serenader was competing with Regina for the spot of Public Enemy #1. Apparently mocking the town and then not showing their face was a very bad move, even worse considering that the mocking was in defense of Regina. Now that was just a package deal for disaster.

With lunch time nearing, Regina needed to get out of the office. She was sure Kathryn must feel the same way; the two had been fielding calls from angry citizens yelling about something or other regarding the Serenader, and although she would hang up whenever they realized it was one of those callers, that didn't stop them. They would just grumble and call back again.

Regina walked out towards her secretary's desk. Kathryn had a glare going as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the line yell at her. She mentally made a note to raise her friend's salary. Unlike her, Kathryn would argue back with the callers.

"...no, you listen to me you ass! I don't care who you think you are, Regina is my friend, you know what that means? That means I won't sell her out, especially not with a bribe! So no, I won't give you Regina, and even if I did know who the Serenader was, I wouldn't tell you!" With a huff Kathryn hung up the phone, crossing her arms petulantly.

"They must be desperate if they are willing to give you money," Regina rolled her eyes, coming to stand by her friend's desk.

Kathryn snorted. "Oh yeah, what a grand idea, let's give Midas' daughter money and see if she bites. Not to mention I have a sense of loyalty. I'd never give you out to those idiots."

Regina smiled, but in her head, a party was unfolding. She was once again reminded that she wasn't alone, and was flattered her friend would go to such lengths to defend her. "I think we've had enough playing telephone operators, what do you say to lunch?"

"Yes please!" Kathryn sighed happily. "I'll go grab something from Granny's. Your usual?"

"Actually, I was thinking of going myself." Due to Granny's proclivity for prepping the crossbow whenever she entered the diner, Emma had forbidden her from entering the establishment. Although Regina had originally agreed, she was getting tired of being so sheltered. She could defend herself very well, she had done it for years as the Evil Queen.

"Are you out of your mind?" Kathryn's eyes bugged out, "You are not going there by yourself!"

"Then by all means, please accompany me." Regina didn't wait to see whether her friend agreed, and made her way out.

The blonde followed after her friend, all the while saying "Regina, I get you're mad, but please listen to reason, Granny is not your biggest fan-"

"And it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon." The former queen stopped and turned to face her friend, who nearly crashed into her having not expected the stop. "I mean really. No one in this town will ever be convinced that-"

"Eventually they will," Kathryn responded. "Look, they can't keep going forever, one day they'll realize they're better off here, and that you've changed. But going out on a suicidal mission like this isn't going to make them see you as a changed woman. They're doing this on purpose, don't you see? You get riled up and they win because you'll be more likely to lose your temper. Then they'll make a scene out of you doing something and we'll never hear the end it that."

Regina wordlessly grumbled, but she did have to admit Kathryn was right. "Very well, but I'll still accompany you. Being in that office is reaching claustrophobic levels."

Kathryn nodded, agreeing with her friend, and the two set off to Main Street.

* * *

By the time they got there, Main Street was setting up for a scene of chaos. The two friends hadn't originally seen anything wrong, people were walking around, minding their own business, but then a piercing cry cut through, and a gang of men were seen running through the roofs, chasing after someone in a hoodie.

"Stop! Thief!" Similar cries were heard, but the hooded person didn't stop.

A collective gasp was heard as the person jumped off one of the roofs, landing on an awning, the soft but taut fabric breaking their fall. They continued their journey by jumping off of that, landing gracefully on the asphalt in a way that allowed the person to transition from a roll into a run effortlessly.

The men, whom Regina recognized as being the dwarves, were left grumbling on the roofs, but they rushed to find a way to chase after their thief. Some tried to do the jump as well, but their collective weight caused the awning to rip, and some dwarfs fell to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs.

Meanwhile the thief started to run away from Main Street...straight towards Regina.

The Mayor was shocked in place seeing the person run towards her, but thankfully the thief's feet braked just in time, just a few feet between them, and they stood staring at each other. Well, Regina was staring into darkness. She couldn't see inside the hood, and after a few seconds of silence, the thief swerved her and continued their run.

Some of the dwarfs who had managed to get down unscathed were now out of breath, stopping a few feet short of where Regina and Kathryn were standing.

Leroy, panting and out of breath, saw who he was standing beside, and recoiled, a grimace settling on his face.

"Keep your damn admirer on a leash Queenie."

Regina stared at him dumbfounded. Had that been- "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh really? What do you call that?" The angry dwarf pointed back towards Main Street, where the chaos had erupted. She looked over at where Kathryn's picture from this morning showed the banner with the declaration against the town. It seems they had tried to take down the sign, but now a different one hung there, declaring a similar message.

**_"I don't care if you do."_**

Kathryn, putting her phone away, stalked over to where Leroy was trying to get a rise out of Regina, who was still in a state of shock.

"Listen here Leroy, Regina had nothing to do with this, so back off." Kathryn stood beside her friend, her stance and arms crossed in front of her displaying the clear message that neither of them were in the mood. Regina had finally shaken off whatever shock she had and was giving Leroy a similar vibe as that of her friend.

The dwarf grumbled as he walked off, and the two women relaxed.

The blonde rounded off to her friend, "Was that-?"

Regina nodded meekly. "I think so."

"Aww, that's so cute!" Kathryn was smitten with seeing this whole story unfold.

"I hardly think that the Serenader nearly crashing into me while running from those bumbling idiots is cute."

Her friend smiled. "It does when they stop for nearly a minute to stare at you."

The brunette thought about it for a moment. It had been unexpected, but she supposed it was a cute gesture, the Serenader coming out in the middle of the day, disguised as they continued to leave messages out. She wondered if they would one day go and talk to her.

Suddenly, sirens were heard, and looking towards the source of the noise, they spotted Ruby jumping out of the cruiser, headed to the two women. Apparently Kathryn had done the sensible thing and called the police.

"I came as fast as I could, what happened?"

Before either one could answer, Leroy took it upon him to take over the situation, stalking over to them determinedly. It seems he came back with a renewed vigor as he exclaimed, "What happened? _She_ happened!" With an accusing finger pointed at Regina, the street fell silent, and the four now had an audience.

"It's her fault that lunatic is running around town lovesick! She doesn't deserve him!"

Ruby took a deep breath, "Leroy, calm down, look we'll figure something out-"

"Figure something out? What about my men? That thief stole from Sneezy and now just hurt half of the dwarfs!"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Send me the hospital bill. Or don't, I could care less. It's not my fault your men cannot grasp the simple concept of physics."

That had probably been a bad thing to say, but Regina was at her wit's end. Leroy didn't seem to be any more calm as his fists tightened and he got closer to her.

Instantly, Ruby was in front of her, a menacing scowl on her face as she glared at the dwarf. "Back off."

Kathryn meanwhile grabbed Regina's arm, and the brunette turned. All around them the people were gathering. It seemed that Leroy's outburst got everyone riled up, and they were ganging up on the 3 women.

They were outnumbered, big time.

"Alright, you're making me have to work on my day off, so believe me when I say that if I have to arrest you, it won't be pretty." The crowd parted to reveal none other than the Savior, red jacket and all, wearing an expression that could've given Regina in her prime Evil Queen days a run for her money.

Though that did little to assuage the people's anger. Emma made her way to the middle, coming to stand right beside Regina.

The scowl on her face gave her a more determined look as she said, "I'm not kidding, back off now."

Behind them, they heard Ruby growl in a way that showed everyone that she wasn't afraid to bring out the wolf to this party.

Emma saw that no one moved, so she put herself in front of Regina and Kathryn, and with as much force she could muster, gritted out, "STAND DOWN **NOW**."

That did the trick, and Regina saw people moving back and away from the scene, though she could see, standing behind the Sheriff, that her hand was tightly clutching the weapon holstered behind her. As the threat seemed to leave, she relaxed her hold and turned around. "You okay?"

Regina could barely find her voice, so she just nodded meekly. Kathryn squeezed her arm gently, and Emma decided to leave them for a few minutes, going over to where Ruby was figuratively chewing Leroy's ear off.

"...are you out of your mind? What the hell was that? Yes I get your men were hurt, but seriously Leroy, you had no right!"

Emma sighed as she stood beside her deputy, arms crossed in front of her, showing the dwarf that she really was not in the mood to deal with this on her day off.

Leroy looked like he was smelling something foul as he said, "I guess I flew a little bit off the handle, but come on! She's evil-"

"You're talking to the wrong group of people Leroy if you think that line will get you out of this," Emma retorted.

If Emma had had a bet going to see who could show up to make things worse, she'd put all her money on Mary Margaret and David. And when they had showed up a few seconds later, confused looks and shocked cries at seeing Leroy being handcuffed and led to the cruiser by Ruby, Emma steeled herself for the worst.

"Emma what are you doing?" Mary Margaret was clearly not pleased with her daughter's dishing out of justice. Especially not when Ruby was dragging off a cuffed Leroy out of the scene.

"Arresting Leroy for disturbing the peace, and being responsible for riling up a mob that nearly attacked us right here on Main Street," was Emma's flat answer.

David wasn't too convinced, watching the dwarf get shoved none-too-gently into the cruiser. "I'm sure it's a misunderstanding."

"Really Charming? Are you that dense?" Regina had sauntered over to where her two least-favorite people were, looking like they were ganging up on Emma. She would later say it had just been to defend herself, but she could see from where she was that Emma's posture had changed. She was stiff as a rod, where a few seconds ago the blonde had looked like she was cowering before her parents.

"This doesn't concern you Regina." David stood in front of his family, not willing the brunette to get closer.

"To the contrary, I know it does, for Leroy gathered his mob against _me_, not your daughter."

Here David faltered. Taking advantage of it, Emma gathered some courage to continue. "Look, my decision is final. I made a promise that if anyone started to break the law in order to hurt Regina, I'd take action against them."

"And" Regina started, moving around to stand beside Emma, "if you do have a problem with that, the Sheriff's office is under my own, so if there are complaints, you'll have to deal with me."

That effectively shut them up, and they left, probably to go see how the other dwarfs were doing.

Emma turned back to face Regina. With a timid smile, she said "Thanks."

The brunette was unsure of what to say. This felt so confusing to her. She shouldn't be feeling the need to protect the daughter of Snow White, but she wanted to, with every fiber of her being, to be there for the blonde like she had been for her every time someone decided to take it out on her for the past few months.

Instead, Regina cleared her throat and responded with, "I'm sorry if you didn't want me to interfere or if this was something you wanted to discuss privately with your parents-"

"More like you prevented her from word-slamming them again. Round two ready to fire up!" Ruby was back, and grinning widely.

Emma shot her friend a pointed look as she said, "Ruby, shouldn't you be taking Leroy down to the Station?"

"Oh, right boss!" With a wink, the deputy turned right back around towards the cruiser.

As Ruby left, Regina wheeled around to look at Emma once again, the faintest of smiles tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Word-slamming?"

She swore she saw a blush forming on Emma's cheeks, but the blonde quickly shrugged it off, "Well, if my job's done, I'm gonna go back to having my day off, while you two go and eat lunch."

After the mob broke away, Kathryn went to get them their lunch, and she was coming back just as Emma was leaving. She saw that Regina was smiling at the Sheriff's retreating form. "What'd I miss?"

They walked back to town hall as Regina explained her stint with the Charmings. "...and then Ruby came in and mentioned something about a word slam."

"Ooh, yeah she keeps mentioning that, I need to ask her about it." Kathryn proceeded to tell her that when the Sheriff and Deputy had come in last Friday, she made a cryptic mention to the word-slam, and the Sheriff's reaction to it.

Regina was intrigued. What had happened?

* * *

Emma just couldn't go back to the apartment, she was still fueled by adrenaline from earlier, so she went to see how Ruby was faring with Leroy.

It was a good thing she did, because Ruby was currently having to fend off Mary Margaret and David. They were all standing near the cells, Leroy inside one of them, lying on his back.

"Come on, it's not like his criminal record is actually going to affect him! If it did he'd be in a lot more trouble, because this isn't the first time he's behind bars." She had to give points to Ruby; Emma would've thought that her long friendship with Mary Margaret would make her deputy bend to Mary Margaret's every whim, but apparently not.

Emma was standing in the hallway just outside the main room of the station, choosing to just watch for now. She'd had enough spats with her parents for now. "Ruby, think for one moment. You know Leroy, he wouldn't have hurt anyone, if anything he was trying to protect you and Emma, even Kathryn, poor woman."

Ruby let out a snort. "Doubt it."

"Shouldn't you be in the room, Sheriff?" Emma jumped a mile as a voice spoke behind her, drawing the attention of everyone inside the room.

Behind her, Albert Spencer had a knowing smirk on his face, and it looked every bit as unfriendly as he was intending. The rest of the station fell silent as the two newcomers were revealed.

Emma ground out "It's my day off. I'm just making sure everything's going fine."

"If it's your day off, then you have no right being here. In fact I could have your deputy arrest you for interfering in police matters."

David, for his part, decided to speak up against his adopted father. "You have no power to do that."

Spencer shrugged his shoulders, walking into the room fully, standing near the center of the room. His suit was neatly pressed, and Emma could guess it was probably expensive as heck. "No matter, I have my ways. But to the matter at hand, I do think it's time we let our good friend Leroy go."

"Why would we do that?" Ruby really wanted to tear the District Attorney limb from limb, but kept her violent tendency in check. The last thing she needed was to make things worse and testier than they were.

"Isn't it obvious? Your little skits are doing wonders, I don't think the Queen has any idea that you're double crossing her."

Emma also entered the room, standing near her office. "Who says we're doing that? Listen Mr. Spencer, let us do our jobs-"

"Giving the Queen free reign, pardon the pun, on this town, not to mention allowing her to keep walking freely is the exact opposite of your jobs, and yet..." He let the sentence hang. Of course he'd start playing his supposed trump card.

"Regina has every right to be walking around this town as anyone else."

"I think, _Sheriff_, that most of the town would disagree with you on that." The way he said her title got her blood boiling. He was mocking her. He walked over to a desk, seeing a stapler lying on it and started to fiddle with it in his hands. "She was a ruthless ruler, and did unspeakable horrors before casting this curse. She doesn't deserve this."

Leroy, who was now sitting up, whispered something, and Mary Margaret made a strange noise that sounded suspiciously like a cross between a laugh and a snort in response, hiding it behind her hand. The District Attorney heard it, and with a mirthless smile, asked, "Something you wish to add, Ms Blanchard?"

David spoke up once again. "Leave us to figure this out."

"I hardly think I'll do that. But I am curious as to what your wife and her criminal friend are conspiring about. Thick as thieves, wouldn't you say?"

In a second, the mood changed. What had been thick tension now transitioned to a debacle as both Mary Margaret and Ruby were holding David back, who was ready to punch Spencer.

The older man let out a cackle, the sound making Emma feel goosebumps crawling all over her skin. "Honestly, what did you think would happen while you were in your coma, and your wife was all alone? She and Leroy were very close while they were the two black sheep of the town, you can't help but wonder...I know she also saw Dr. Whale for a time."

David was positively livid by now, and Emma wasn't much better, fists forming and tightening, making her knuckles turn white. How she kept her composure throughout this entire ordeal was beyond her, but she did. With as much bravado as she could muster, she had to end this here and now. "Hey! Just because you're a lonely old prune doesn't give you the right to attack my parents like that. They have more dignity than you could ever muster. And who my mother dated while cursed is none of your business. Now get the hell out of here, you pig, before I have to arrest you, and believe me I **will** do it."

"How dare you!" Spencer was now seething, clutching the stapler in his hand, pointing it at her. "You insolent child! I can see that living without proper parents turned you out worse than if you had been with them! You're a disgrace!"

Emma wouldn't let the jab get to her, not now at least. The trio standing by Leroy were frozen in place. Mary Margaret and David were gaping at having Emma refer to them as her parents, while Ruby just watched, silently cheering her friend and boss. Leroy was admiring the courage she had, she was clearly Snow's daughter.

The blonde smirked as she replied, "I still turned out better than you ever will."

Spencer was shaking in anger, and without much thought, threw the stapler straight at her.

"Emma!" The four others in the room cried out as they saw the office supply fly across the room.

The blonde in question was frozen in place. Should she dodge out of the way, or reveal herself? The latter might effectively shut Spencer up, but it might make things worse in the long run. But she wasn't thinking too far ahead. Screw consequences, she had to protect herself.

She concentrated on the flying object, but nothing was happening. Panic began to set in as she realized it wasn't working. Shit.

Suddenly the stapler froze in mid air a few inches away from her face. It was so close that Emma had to cross her eyes to see the black office supply.

To her left, clicking heels announced Regina's entrance, hand still out, keeping the stapler in place, while her other hand held a manila folders. "Something I can help you with, D.A Spencer?"

Emma was still rooted to the spot as Spencer huffed and muttered under his breath and left the office, making sure to give the meanest glare to Emma. Halfway out in the hallway, he stopped and turned around, facing Regina, who was looking at him as if she expected lasers to shoot out of her eyes and pulverize the D.A. "Take this victory as you will, but mark my words, this secret admirer nonsense will end badly for everyone involved."

Regina merely rolled her eyes, ignoring the thinly veiled threat, turning around and going to deposit the stapler on the nearest desk. She looked at the Sheriff, who was still pale and frozen. Her timing had been impeccable. She had remembered that she needed to drop off some papers at the Sheriff's station, so she went to drop them off, arriving just as soon as she saw a stapler flying towards her roommate.

Why didn't the other woman move out of the way? She knew Emma had the reflexes to dodge it, and yet, she hadn't budged an inch. Even now her eyes were unfocused. "Hey," Regina made her way closer. "You okay?"

Emma did a double take, as if realizing where she was, letting out a shaky "Yeah" along with a nod. She didn't need the Sheriff's superpower to know that was a lie. But before she could try to convince her to elaborate, the family jumped in. Literally.

Mary Margaret and David engulfed Emma in a hug. Regina knew something must've happened before she had come in, since the stapler couldn't have caused so much fright.

She knew she was out of place here. Regina dropped the folder beside the stapler, and left without a word.

* * *

Once Regina finally got home, she wanted nothing more than to collapse on her bed. Today had been a day and a half, and it was only Monday.

Between nearly crashing into the Serenader and the whole drama with the Charmings, Leroy and the mobs, her day had been filled. Thankfully after she left the station, things had calmed down. She hoped she'd be able to have a chat with her roommate about what had happened today at the station. Maybe she'd try to get some hints on the word-slamming that Ruby kept mentioning.

Arriving at the door, she saw a note tucked into the doorjamb in Emma's scrawly writing.

**Hey,**

**So MM and David invited Henry and I to dinner and I couldn't say no after what happened. I tried to see if they would invite you, but no luck, sorry :/**

**We'll be back soon,**

**Emma**

Looks like it was just going to be her tonight then. Opening the door, she was greeted with a bouquet of flowers lying on top of the entrance table. All lilies. A card lay on top of the bouquet, and saw that this penmanship was much neater than from the notepad paper message she held.

_**I must apologize for nearly running into you today, and for the drama you had to endure afterwards.**_

_**I wish the rest of the town could see you're such a heavenly view.**_

_**-Serenader**_

_**PS: Thanks for the name, it's catchy.**_

Regina stood there dumbfounded. Words escaped her right now. She almost missed seeing the hooded figure trying to sneak out the fire escape.

"Wait!"

* * *

**And that was this chapter!**

**Lots of drama, and some cutesy moments sneaking in in there! **

**What could Emma be hiding? Hmmm, curious and curiouser.**

**I just want to clarify something regarding the relationship with Emma and her parents. They're not going to be antagonists to this story or anything, I just have them as mistrustful of Regina, all without mentioning that Emma herself isn't sure of her whole dynamic with them. I mean, I think it's obvious she does consider them family, as her outburst implies, but it must be a lot to take in after 28 years of not believing there was anyone for her. It takes a while to let it sink in.**

**Now I leave this up to YOU! You, the reviewers, shall decide! Does the Serenader stop and have a chat, or run away?**

**While I wait, I'll be adding a new story/updating a drabble from SQW: In Sickness and in Health**

**Please let me know what you thought of this!**

**Thank you!**


	5. A Meeting

**And back again with more from this story!**

**Thank you everyone for voting! One side won with a landslide so that's the direction this fic will go! But the mystery shall still remain for a little while longer! I'm quite sure the Serenader does think ahead and is well prepared for the situation.**

**Also big congrats to PeculiarMaleficent for getting the reference of the lilies! Now I'm not entirely sure if it's 100% true, since I think it's only for the tiger lily flowers, but in the movie Imagine Me & You [which everyone should watch because it's an amazing story] a lily means "I dare you to love me", which of course I'm sure the Serenader knows and intended!**

**I hope everyone enjoys this!**

* * *

Regina watched as the hooded figure froze in place, one leg outside, the other in. Their back was to her, hands on either side of the window frame to steady themself.

"Please."

She didn't mean for that second part to come out so quiet and broken, but it did the trick. The Serenader retracted their leg back into the room and stood still with their back to her.

Regina tried to memorize every detail from the little she could see. It was a vision in black, from the hoodie to their dark jeans all the way to the leather gloves and converse sneakers, clearly meant for stealth and mobility, though only for nighttime. Earlier that day that combination had stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Who are you?"

A low and deep throaty laugh was heard. Either the Serenader was a man, or they were disguising their voice. "Now what makes you think I'll reveal that?"

Regina glared at the back of the hoodie as if that would make the Serenader change their mind. "Then why stay?"

"You asked."

She swore she heard a familiar hint of playful bantering, but she pushed that thought out as she smirked. "Well I'm asking you now for your identity."

The Serenader turned around, and once again Regina saw total darkness under the hood. They made their way closer to her, standing as they both had earlier that day, a few inches from each other. "What's the fun in that though? The mystery is gone, and you don't get anymore of my little messages; do you want that?"

She did a double take. They had her there. She slowly shook her head. "No."

"There you go." The Serenader stuffed their hands in their pockets before continuing, "But you _can_ ask me something. Anything else you want, provided it doesn't give hints to my identity of course."

Regina couldn't see, but she heard the smile behind the deep voice. She decided to keep up with the joking. It had been a while since she had a truly light and carefree conversation with someone. "Just one thing?"

"Don't push your luck, Mayor Mills." Again that playful banter.

Now she had to think, what could she ask? There were so many things she wanted to know, and yet, one of them stood out prominently in her mind. "Why are you doing this?"

Though faceless, the change of stance, a subtle stiffness creeping up, told Regina that they hadn't been expecting that question. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Humor me." What she might think as obvious might not be what they thought as obvious.

"I like you."

The answer was simple enough, and indeed it might seem obvious, but Regina's eyes widened, and her mouth was slightly agape. She took a step back, surely she heard wrong. "How-"

They laughed. "I was under the impression the 'how' doesn't exist when it comes to love. But believe me, I wasn't exactly thrilled at realizing it."

"Oh?" She didn't even try to school her features as she braced for disappointment. Them saying that they realized she was the Evil Queen, or that she had screwed over their life or their family, or any of the other countless reasons everyone gave to explain their hatred and distaste for her.

"Yeah, 'cause I knew I'd have no chance with you. You're this gorgeous and amazing lady, and I'm this fucked up, sad excuse for a human being. Why do you think I didn't just try to ask you out? I didn't think you'd ever in a million years say yes."

Regina was surprised at the blunt honesty, and the completely unexpected answer. "I-"

The answer had been unpredictable, but what happened next was out of anything she had even begun to think as a possibility.

They kissed her.

Their lips were pressed together, and as soon as Regina got over the shock, she melted into the kiss, throwing her arms around their shoulders. She realized the Serenader was a bit taller than her, though she was much too distracted with the kiss to focus on that. Strong arms wrapped around her body, pulling her to them.

Once they broke for air, Regina tried to peer up into the darkness, but nothing. She knew she had kissed someone's lips, but they somehow managed to keep this foggy blanket over them through the entire time.

"Well, I must be off now, I need to prepare my messages for tomorrow!" They gave her one last peck before separating.

Once more the Serenader went towards the window, and they were back in the position she found them in some minutes ago. The Serenader paused, turning around to face her once more. "And hey, just so you know, not everyone thinks you're evil."

As she was alone again, Regina tried to process everything. Had that really just happened?

* * *

Emma was tired, what was new? It was the middle of the night and here she was chasing a delinquent.

Dinner with her parents had been a mission and a half. The slip-up of calling them her parents had been an in-the-moment occurrence. She still hadn't managed to quite accept that her parents were here, alive and healthy and just a few years older than her physically. She had spent so long coming to terms with the fact that she was alone, that this was a shock to her, one she preferred to not deal with in the immediate future. But the slip-up had pacified her parents and they were ecstatic at the apparent admission and realization that they were her parents. But she couldn't very well explain that to them, and especially not in front of Henry.

She had thanked the phone call at the moment, Ms. Nesbitt was convinced that she saw some strange person causing a ruckus near her house, so Emma had silently thanked her lucky stars and bolted out of there.

It had turned out to be a stray cat, and once she caught the feline, Emma left to drop it off at the pet shelter for David to deal with in the morning. She had a brief moment of inspiration, especially since she hadn't wanted to go back to her parents' apartment, so she just wandered around, trying to clear her head.

That was when she was nearly run over by a rogue driver driving an old pick-up truck. She jumped into her car and chased after the maniac but lost him somewhere inside the Storybrooke forest, and now she was without service. Perfect. She had gotten out of her car and continued the journey on foot, as her Bug couldn't handle the rough terrain of the forest.

After some paces, she saw the truck up ahead, and took out her gun.

* * *

A few hours after her surprise meeting with the Serenader, Regina had long finished her dinner, changed into her pajamas, and was now sitting on her bed, reading. She glanced at the clock and noted that the Charmings were clearly hosting a lengthy dinner since neither Emma nor Henry had returned. It had probably been best that she hadn't been invited, she'd have probably blown someone's head off by now.

As if thinking about it summoned them, her phone started to vibrate. Checking the phone, she grimaced at seeing the name Mary Margaret on the screen. Steeling herself for anything, she pressed the green button.

"Yes, Ms. Blanchard, what do you want?" The last thing she wanted to do was deal with the annoying woman, so she at least decided that she'd outright skip the pleasantries, getting right to the heart of the matter.

"Hey Regina, has Emma contacted you at all lately?" Mary Margaret didn't skip a beat in her response, clearly she had been expecting Regina's curtness.

The mayor scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. This was a strange question indeed. "No? She left me a note saying she went to have dinner with you."

"And she did, but then she got a call from Ms. Nesbitt about a burglar or something, and left. We just called Ms. Nesbitt now and she said the matter had been resolved hours ago, that it had just been a stray cat."

"Fascinating." She could hardly keep the bite out of her voice as she added, "Ms. Blanchard, although I appreciate your riveting retelling of my roommate's whereabouts, I fail to see what that has to do with me."

"Emma's been gone for the past couple of hours. I've tried to call her but no answer. I tried Ruby, Belle or anyone else around town but no one's seen her. I was wondering if maybe she went back to the apartment and fell asleep or something."

Regina's stomach clenched. This couldn't be good. "I'll try to find her."

"How? We've already tried to call her and-"

"Magic, Ms. Blanchard." Before she found herself fielding questions, she hung up on her old nemesis, setting the phone down and getting up.

She walked over to Emma's room and went over to her closet. She found the blue leather jacket that made the red version look like a tuxedo in comparison, and enchanted it with a locator spell.

As soon as she let go of the object, it floated around for a second before flying out the window. Regina didn't even have time to change her clothes, but on her way out the door she quickly grabbed a jacket and shoes before running out of the building to chase down the levitating garment.

Her heart sunk as she saw that she was heading towards the forest. What had Emma gotten herself into?

* * *

The truck was empty. Emma breathed easier after having checked the vicinity for the crazy driver and seeing it wasn't a trap. But she hadn't found neither hide nor hair of whoever had been in the vehicle.

Checking the glove compartment, Emma saw the car was registered to one Bobby Pottage. She grabbed the registration and stuffed it into her pocket, keeping a tight grip on her gun and flashlight.

The only thing she hadn't checked was the trunk. What were the chances that Bobby had closed himself in there to hide?

The top was down, so she was going to have to figure something else out to check inside. Before she could get started, she heard a twig snap.

She turned off her flashlight and crouched behind the right side of the truck. Emma tried to even her breathing as whoever it was continued to crunch the twigs on their way to the truck. She glanced around the truck and saw that whoever it was, they had a lantern of some sort with them.

As Emma looked closer, it looked like fire rather than a lightbulb. Had someone decided to regress back to their Middle Ages-esque fairy tale days by lighting a torch? She didn't really want to analyze it much before she lost the element of surprise.

She prepared her gun and flashlight and took a deep breath. Letting it go, she came out from behind the truck and turned on the flashlight, pointing the gun at the newcomer. "Freeze!"

"Emma?" She recognized the voice, but it didn't make sense.

"Reg-" Suddenly black surrounded her as something covered her face. "What the-"

She didn't let go of either object as she tried to pry away whatever it was that was in her face, but no avail.

"Stop struggling! Let me help." Regina's voice sounded much closer, and suddenly she could see again, Regina was standing about an inch away, holding whatever it was that had been on her face in one hand, and on the other hand, she held a fireball. That must've been the light she saw.

"What are you doing here?" Although Emma knew Regina couldn't possibly be the crazy driver, she was puzzled as to how Regina had located her. Unless she...no that was impossible, otherwise they'd be having a very different conversation.

"You've been gone for a while and your parents were worried."

Emma was sure she heard wrong. Did she travel to an alternate universe when she wasn't looking? "It's only been 3 hours last I checked? And wait, did they seriously call _you_ to help?"

"The tone of surprise is noted, dear, and no, they simply called to ask if I knew where you were and I took the matter of finding you upon myself since your parents were clearly inept at finding a better solution than calling the whole town."

The Sheriff did a double take. "Wait, they called the whole town?"

"Out of everything I said, that's what you take away? You're not even going to ask how I found you, or explain where you have been, or what you're doing hiding behind a truck in the middle of the forest?" Regina finished with a frustrated sigh. How could this woman be so infuriating!

"No I just- wait how _did_ you find me?"

Regina held up the cloth she was still holding in one of her hands. "Locator spell on your derelict jacket."

Emma nodded. Of course, magic. Though that did give her an idea. "Think you can use your magic to open this trunk?"

Regina looked to where Emma was jerking her thumb, gun still in hand. "First you'll explain to me why you're out here on your own without any back-up or protection, or even why you didn't answer the phone."

The Sheriff smirked. "Careful Regina, your caring is showing again." Seeing Regina once again fumble around with her words, Emma continued. "And to soothe your worries, out here in the middle of nowhere my phone doesn't have service so no calls in or out. Secondly, I was chasing a maniac who nearly ran me over, I didn't have time to call backup or anything. Plus who was I going to call? Granny would have my head if I pulled Ruby out of work for this."

"Someone ran you over?" Although Emma didn't notice, Regina's fireball flared just a little bit brighter and stronger at hearing the Sheriff's response.

"Nearly."

Regina didn't say another word as she turned to the trunk and waved her hand, creating a dull thunk sound as the mechanism unlocked.

Emma opened the door and shone her light inside. Empty. She put her gun away as well as her flashlight, as Regina's fireball did the job of both of the items she was holding. She pulled back the covering on the truck, and saw something peculiar. "Huh."

"What is it?"

"I think we found our tree thief. The bottom of this tarp is covered in scratches and the base of the truck bed has some wood bark and chips scattered. Plus it smells just like Mr. Nelson's woodwork shop."

Regina nodded slowly. "Who's the car registered to?"

"Bobby Potage. Name ring any bells?"

The mayor shook her head. "Not off the top of my head."

"Well, I think he's long gone by now, so let's head back."

"Yes, before your parents begin to wonder if I've done away with you."

Emma chuckled softly, but didn't respond.

They walked back quietly to Emma's car, and as soon as her phone had one bar, it started buzzing madly.

She fished the phone out of her pocket and sighed before answering. "Hey Mary Margaret-"

"Where have you been!?" The shrill voice at the other end of the line was so loud Emma had to pull the phone away from her ear.

"Long story, I was chasing down a lead, but I'm fine, Regina's with me-"

"If that's meant to soothe me, Emma, you'd be sorely mistaken."

Emma turned to see that Regina wasn't nearby to hear that part, and thankfully she wasn't, having walked ahead to reach the yellow Bug. "Yeah I know, but anyway we're gonna head back home. Is Henry still awake?"

"It's 3 in the morning Emma, he's been out like a light for hours now."

"Right. Well can he stay with you guys tonight? And then I can swing by tomorrow-"

On the other end of the line, Mary Margaret let out a chuckle. "Don't worry Emma, we'll take him to school tomorrow."

"Right. Thanks."

"Anytime, just make sure to let us know next time you go gallivanting? I woke up half the town trying to find you."

It was Emma's turn to laugh. "So I've heard. Night Mary Margaret."

"Good night, Emma."

* * *

The ride back had been quiet, and now at the apartment, Emma noticed something.

"You came after me in your pajamas?"

Regina's back was to Emma, so she didn't see the way the brunette blushed like a firetruck. Without turning, she tried to be as nonchalant as she could while responding, "Your jacket flew off before I could properly change."

Emma didn't believe that for a moment, even though her lie detector didn't ring with the answer, so it must've been a partial truth. Shrugging off her jacket, she saw a new fixture by the table. "What's with the vase of flowers?"

Regina froze. With everything that happened, she forgot about mentioning the Serenader's visit. She turned around to face the blonde, hands fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. "I-it was a gift from the Serenader."

"Oh? I thought they only did two messages per day? At least that was the pattern we established."

The brunette nodded meekly. "This wasn't part of the messages."

Emma fought to keep her face passive, but Regina was now seriously looking like a little kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar and it made her want to laugh. She tried to egg her on. "Then what was it?"

"It was a sort of apology for running into me today. I found them when I came in the apartment."

The blonde nodded thoughtfully. She saw that Regina was struggling to add something else, so she decided to stay quiet and wait for the older woman to continue.

"There was something else. The Serenader hadn't left by the time I came in."

"Did you see who it was?"

"No. They had their face really hidden." Regina explained the rest of the story, the question she had posed to the Serenader, and the answer she got. "And then they...they kissed me."

Emma didn't say anything, walking over to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water. "Water?"

"No, thank you."

A few more minutes passed. Emma emptied her glass before asking, "So, do you think they're telling the truth?"

Now it was Regina's turn to be silent. "I suppose. I mean, they haven't exactly given me reason to doubt them, especially since finding people that like me in this town are few and rare."

Both women were silent as they pondered.

* * *

**Another chapter, and more mysterious occurrences happening!**

**Sorry if this part seemed a bit filler-ish, but I felt like with the Serenader already having made their surprise meeting, and their kiss, I wanted something different to happen and keep things going, and the plot moving forward.**

**Next up we get Henry to start trying to puzzle the mystery together!**

**Meanwhile I'll be adding more to the Kissing Booth story!**

**Let me know what you think about this chapter!**


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